The paper presents research results aimed at the identification of the motivation to learn of students in the preparation of helping professions. Student motivation is an important part of the self-regulated learning process, yet not sufficient attention is paid to this issue at the tertiary level of education. The research aims to discover the extent to which students' motivation to learn is internalized, and also to determine the extent to which this motivation is domain-specific. For research purposes, we chose a questionnaire method among 286 students of helping professions. The questionnaire contained 23 items divided according to the type of motivation, ranging from amotivation to intrinsic motivation. Motivation in students ranges from introjected to the identified type of regulation. Intrinsic motivation as the predominant type of motivation occurs only sporadically in the research sample. The motivation to learn is domain-specific in three types of external regulation and in intrinsic motivation. No distinct type of motivation was detected in a large number of the respondents. The more the students perceive their discipline as important and useful, the more internalized their motivation is, and vice versa. In a large number of students, there are multiple motives encouraging their learning within a specific discipline, these are often in opposition. Motivation is the key to success in one's studies and it is reflected in the professional quality of future graduates in helping profession. (C) 2016 Published by Elseiver Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.